Date: 2008-11-02 11:52:02 Created: null
It was an afternoon in late July that I found a package waiting in the mail for me. There was no clue whatsoever as to who had sent it, my name and address was even printed on a sticker. To my great surprise, it contained a copy of Getting Things Done in Swedish. I do have a few people around me who I can imagine would get the idea to send me something in an unmarked envelope, but I'd never talked to anyone about GTD as far as I can remember. That's not to say I didn't know what it is. I stumbled upon 43folders.com earlier this year, and after a little reading there finding out a wee bit about GTD is pretty much inevitable.
Basically Getting Things Done is about getting more done by keeping less in mind. You accomplish this by setting up and using a simple and efficient organisation system to keep track of everything you need to do and the tasks you need to accomplish to reach your goals. The point is to get organising and keeping track of things out of your head so you can focus better on whatever task you choose to do at the moment.
GTD is all very down-to-earth and is pretty much common sense taken seriously, pushed a step or two further and made into a support system for ... well, getting things done.
I've read most of the book by now, and it's a pretty good read. For something promising grand improvements one part of your life or another it's quite down to earth. There's no need to adopt or believe in everything in there, it's quite fun to just go through it a piece at a time and feel the individual pieces make sense by themselves too. So far I've increased the amount of things I write down on paper, realized it takes a bit of work to actually find proper next tasks for projects, and started thinking about expanding/altering my organisation system in GTD-like ways. And I only saw the book the first time what, two weeks or so ago? Who knows where this will end, but I'm sure only good things can come out of it.
Don't know if it's GTD helping already or just me on a good path, but I'm feeling pretty good at leaving work at work these days.
So, who sent me the book? It turned out there was a folded paper very carefully tucked in between the first pages, congratulating me on my first job and welcoming me into the union. End of mystery, what a pity.